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SensorComm 2013
Barcelona, Spain
Ultra-miniature optical imagers and sensors
Smallest traditional focusing
cameras are roughly 1 mm in
diameter
Size limited by need for lenses
Optical
1268 " 1590 " 1837" 1865" 1890" 1900s"
spectacles" microscope" Photograph" Maxwells Eqs"Cooke Triplet" New Glass Types"
1: Focus 2: Fix
image
Digital
1980s" 1990s"
Digital 1969" Digital Digital
CCD" Copier" Cameras"
1920" 1948"
Signal " Information
Theory" Theory"
6 2013 Rambus Inc.
Imager resolution vs. physical volume
Worldwide sales vs. physical volume
1015
1 1010
2
1012
1. Gran Canaria Telescope
Resolution !pixels"
Sales !units#year"
7 2. Hubble telescope
10
45 3. 1m telescope
109 4. 30cm telescope
5. AWARE 2 camera
6. Professional camera
7 6
98 104 7. Consumer digital camera
106
10
8.
9.
iPhone camera
Pelican camera
11 10.
11.
Miniature VGA
Medigus medical camera
1000 Valley of 10 12. Single photodiode
darkness
1 12 0.01
Image plane
Focusing: concentrating light from one incident
angle at one location
Requires light transport on the inside of the
camera; at least one focal length deep
Produces a 1:1 transfer function between
Photocurrent
incident angle and sensor readings
Little computation necessary to produce final
digital image
8 2013 Rambus Inc.
Diffraction-based sensors
One sensor location sensitive to multiple
incident angles
Relaxes requirement of transporting light from
each point in the scene to a single location on
the sensor
Photocurrent
Transfer function between complete scenes
and full sensor readings can still be 1:1, if the
imager is designed properly
Computation becomes an essential part of
digital image formation
9 2013 Rambus Inc.
Diffraction from regular amplitude gratings (PFCA)
Inci-d40 Incid
ent -20 ent
azim azi
uth 0 mut
h (d
(d egre20 egre
15 2013 Rambus Inc. es) 40 es)
PicoCam phase anti-symmetric linear imager
Grating parameters wi can be
Custom phase grating
optimized for concentrating light
onto a small spot on a photodiode
Focus is only very slightly depth- and
wavelength-dependent
Optimal wi for blue light slightly smaller
than for red light
Photodiodes
Relates all information about Fourier
components of far-away scene
transverse to grating orientation Standard pixel array
5p
4
3p
4
p
2
p
4
40m
Phase grating
Optical simulation
of photocurrent from
1.67 m pixels
40m
Input image
40m
1% noise
40m
1% noise
Reconstruction
40m
1% noise
Reconstruction
1% noise
Previous work,
factor 37x area
Reconstruction
time
Sensor plane
www.pcpro.co.uk
26 2013 Rambus Inc.
Depth of field depends on range of
wavefront curvatures at entrance pupil
Sensor plane
Differences in wavefront curvature lead to large depth of field
~10 m
SEM
200 m
2.0
Camera resolution barrier
1.0
0.5
PicoCam resolution barrier
0.2
Ground truth
10
100 Spiral grating
Without grating
dstork@rambus.com